Hardin Library Resources

Guide to Searching

A 2 page PDF guide on how to construct effective search strategies in literature databases.

What is Evidence Based Practice?

Evidence-Based Practice (EBP): Evidence-based practice is the judicious use of the best research evidence (found in health sciences literature), clinical expertise (what the health care provider knows) and patient values (what the patient wants and believes) to create a plan of action regarding patient care. Evidence-based practice is an umbrella term that covers evidence-based medicine, evidence-based dentistry, evidence-based public health, evidence-based nursing and etc.

Using PICO to Formulate Clinical Questions

PICO is a mnemonic used to describe the four elements of a good clinical question. It stands for:

Using our Databases to Locate Articles

The databases listed on this page are excellent places to start a PT literature search. Please schedule a consultation if you have a specific research topic, and you would like some advice on either getting started or building a good search strategy.

Look for the InfoLink button in your results, and select it to view full text options.

Good Places to Start

Large available citation database covering all biomedical literature, a free service from the National Library of Medicine. Includes over 5000 peer-reviewed journals, including most PT journals. Includes MEDLINE, which refers to all citations organized by the Medical Subject Heading system (MeSH). Access from library page to connect to full text articles via Infolink.

Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature: Includes over 3000 journals for nursing and 17 allied health disciplines. Primary coverage is peer-reviewed journals with studies and review articles; also includes dissertations, drug reports, conference proceedings. Includes most PT journals.

Includes a few unusual titles, especially in the areas of disability and adaptive sports, sports medicine, kinesiology, biomechanics, and the psychology of sport; also contains over 22,000 theses and dissertations.

PEDro is a free database of randomised trials, systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines in physiotherapy. All trials included are independently appraised, in an effort to supply users with sufficient information to guide clinical practice. Produced the Centre for Evidence-Based Physiotherapy at The George Institute for Global Health (Australia).

Database developed by APTA to improve integration of evidence into practice. Available only to members. It includes extractions of articles related to physical therapy interventions that have been entered into the database by volunteer contributors. The database does not include practice guidelines, systematic reviews, articles on diagnostic and prognostic tests, or outcome measures.

Evidence Pyramid

These are some of the publication types that are associated with higher levels of evidence. You may want to start at the top of the pyramid and work your way down.

Publication Types by Question Type: Different study types are suited to different questions. For example:

Jennifer DeBerg

Additional Databases

A point-of-care medical reference updated daily by a review of the medical literature. Organized in a structured note format, content is easy to navigate; both overall recommendations and specific study results are included; available for download to mobile device.

The Cochrane Library is a collection of evidence-based medicine databases, providing clinicians reliable and current information on the effects of interventions in health care. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews are the gold standard of medical literature, providing comprehensive research analyses on a variety of medical treatments; DARE critiques other systematic reviews in a structured abstract format; CENTRAL provides a repository of clinical trial citations.

AgeLine provides bibliographic coverage of social gerontology. Also covered are the delivery of health care to the older population and its associated costs and policies, and consumer, employment, and public policy issues.

Accessed via larger collection called Web of Knowledge.
Web of science is a citation database that includes over 12,000 journals from 256 categories. Using this tool, you can perform cited reference searches to find out who is citing important works and discover details about the path of research by topic.

OTseeker is a database that contains abstracts of systematic reviews and randomised controlled trials relevant to occupational therapy. Trials have been critically appraised and rated to assist with interpretation.

Natural Standard was founded by healthcare providers and researchers to provide information about evidence base for complementary and alternative therapies. Grades reflect the level of available scientific data for or against the use of each therapy for a specific medical condition.

The National Guideline Clearinghouse is a freely available database of clinical practice guidelines and related documents. It is an initiative of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Filters designed to limit PubMed search results to citations that are clinically relevant and specific to inquiry. Use it to narrow your results by question domain type (etiology, diagnosis, therapy, prognosis or clinical prediction guides.

A point of care tool written and edited by a global community of 4,800 physicians. Contains over 9,000 topics in 19 specialties. Provides a grading system for recommendations that shows whether the recommendation is weak or strong and whether or not there is evidence to support the recommendation.